Livin' la vida loca

Time for another post folks! It's been a week since my last one and we've done so much!

 Church on Sundays is interesting, super difficult to keep up. Kait and I have decided to study the lessons during our nightly scripture study in English and Spanish the week before in an attempt to have any clue as to what is being discussed.

However I really love Sundays because after Church we go to the Knapp's house for devotional and it's always really beautiful and filled with the Spirit. Yesterday especially may have been one of the most Spirit-filled days of my life. I was in charge of the spiritual thought at devotional which began a discussion with Kaitlin that lasted the afternoon. I love talking to her and we had amazing conversation yesterday. Then at the Knapp's, everyone shared thoughts and experience that brought tears to my eyes. As testimonies were shared the Spirit blanketed the room. The theme of our program is to remember gratitude, and I for one could not be more grateful to be here. I could not have asked for a better roommate, group of students, professors or host family. I'm filled with love for everyone and awe that I have the opportunity to be here and know all of them.

Mondays we have our religion class with Area seventy Faustino Lopez. It's absolutely amazing. Our first class was about looking God's hand in our lives. It fit perfectly with our program theme and our devotionals. He is a real blessing. 

After class we had Family Home Evening with a few students from our group. My "family" decided to go to Tapas for our first time! Tapas is a very Spanish tradition, to go out and order drinks and they bring you a light meal. People eat them as snacks, appetizers or for dinner. 

PICTURES

Drinking out of our glass Pepsi bottles!








My tapa, a tuna sandwich!

Tuesday we went to a Real Madrid soccer game, which was pretty fun- even though I had a cold. I'm not that into sports but apparently it's a huge deal.

We spent the rest of the week doing classes, homework, going shopping (there are once a year sales going on in every store!) and going on adventures in Madrid!

One of the days we went into Madrid because it was Saint Anthony's day, which apparently means there is a parade and a Priest blesses hundreds of pets!!! We wanted to buy a pet and get it blessed but it didn't end up being practical so we just watched. This is the priest waiting to bless the animals.

Saturday on our way into Madrid we stopped to see the Temple. We went inside the Church building next door to and stumbled upon some missionaries teaching English lessons and ended up helping out! It was so much fun. It gave me a lot of respect for people trying to make out what I'm saying when I'm struggling through Spanish. I'm so grateful for all the people, especially my host mom and Roberto, who are so patient with me and work really hard to understand what I'm attempting to say.

We had double Family Home Evening this week, Monday we went to the Madrid ward FHE. It was really fun! Everyone spoke English! There were people there from England and Germany.
Tonight we went to our ward FHE and met some new people and played games. It was great!

A quick glimpse into my home life here in Spain:
Encarna and Roberto are honestly amazing! I feel so blessed, I couldn't have asked for a better family. She loves to sit and talk to us when we get home. I know it's not easy to understand our Spanish but she listens and eventually figures it out. She loves it when we tell her about the things we did or people we met. She took us shopping yesterday and we all bought clothes and dessert and just had so much fun. She is still pumping us full of food and supplying us with way too much sugar. Since they are on a diet she makes us keep the junk food in our room. This a serious problem because we have burned through an embarrassing amount of chocolate. This was all under our bed last week. (Most of it is gone now. Honestly horrifying. When we run out we don't plan to tell her because we absolutely cannot continue this trend.)

This was last week but two Saturdays ago Roberto walked us around Alcala so we could get our bearings. He is so sweet and patient with us, but he is also hilarious. Kait taught him the "banana" game. So they kept punching each other when a yellow car passed. I stayed out of that one. It was hilarious because when he walked us back to our starting point I was turned around and he kept trying to explain where we were. It was quite the process and when I eventually got it he grabbed me and yelled "POR FIN!!" (finally!) 

Then he went home to study. He's thirteen but he is so mature! His mom leaves for work at 5 am and he gets himself up and goes to school himself. He is really responsible.

However, one night when Encarna went to her night classes, the true thirteen year old came out in Roberto! He went super crazy and locked Kait out of our room. Then he turned off the power in the house and busted into our room wearing this.


                                     

It was psycho but he is so funny.

And on that inspiring note I bid you adios!